Panasonic DVD-L50 Portable DVD Player

Other products by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [2.22mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000JFMK
• Item model number: DVD-L50
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (143 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #96,991 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Now you can take your home theater with you--or at least a miniature version of it. The Panasonic DVD-L50 PalmTheater lets you watch DVDs on the road, at a friend's house, or wherever you feel the urge for entertainment.

The DVD-L50 PalmTheater's sleek steel construction looks great and provides added durability. Panasonic has done a great job of miniaturizing both screen and speakers without sacrificing too much quality. The virtual surround sound is impressive for such small speakers, although it definitely leans toward the high end, making some sounds too shrill or tinny. The sound improves drastically with headphones.

The picture is fairly good with an adequate viewing angle to either side--not what you'd get on a TV, of course, but still good enough to sit through for an entire movie. The DVD-L50 lets you choose between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios at the touch of a button. It also offers a zoom mode that lets you fill the screen with a 4:3 picture, although you tend to get a rather pixellated image. (We found that we preferred the smaller but sharper non-zoom mode.)

The DVD-L50 provides video and digital audio outputs and can be hooked up to a larger home-theater setup. It strikes us as a good choice to take to a friend's house to watch DVDs or to use with hotel TVs on trips. It does have about a two-hour battery life, so you could conceivably watch a whole DVD without being hooked up to an AC outlet (on a plane, for instance). You can also use it as a portable CD player, with or without headphones.

Pros:

• World's smallest DVD player with built-in screen
• Virtual surround sound makes for impressive audio
• Bright, sharp screen
• Lightweight (only two pounds)
• Rugged steel construction also looks great

Cons:

• Speakers make audio a bit shrill

Product Description

Portable DVD/Video/CD Player with LCD Monitor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent 2nd Home DVD Player and Road Warrior, February 8, 2000

By	"gameguru" (Colorado Springs, Colorado) - See all my reviews

I admit I am a bit of a gadget lover, but that aside, I thoroughly enjoy my DVD-50 Player, and use it all of the time.

ONE: The screen. Although the screen is small, it is bright enough to view comfortably in just about any indoor setting, and the swivel is such that it is easy to adjust to just about any viewing angle. The pixel quality is equal that of many high-end laptop computers, and it offers an acceptable viewing size for an average 2 hour film.

TWO: The controls. The mini-remote control is functionally complete, but a bit difficult to use in poor light. Perhaps back-lighting or glow-in-the-dark buttons would have been a good addition. However, the size of the remote is perfect as I can slip it in my travel bag with the player, and it takes up minimum room. It is not much larger then a credit card. While in hotels, I use it quite a bit and feel that the size and functionality is exceptional.

THREE: Is a laptop better? Often, a comparison is made between this unit and a laptop computer with DVD. However, if you already have a laptop which has sub-standard DVD support and you do not wish to go out and get a new one, this unit is your best choice. If you have $3000 to burn, then perhaps a high end laptop with DVD support is the way to go, but then you have a large laptop to deal with instead of the nicely compact DVD-50.

FOUR: A secondary DVD player. One of the greatest uses I have found for this marvel is to simply grab it, run over to a friend's or relative's house, and plug it in! It is always a hit to hook it up to another's TV and offer DVD to the "un-enlightened". Also, I can move the unit around the house and connect it easily and quickly to TVs that don't have DVD drives hooked up to them.

FIVE: Sound. This is probably the weakest area of the unit, but you really can't blame the unit too much because the sound problem is really due to the small size of the unit. Essentially there is no BASS. The speakers tend to sound like just the tweeters from a home audio system so the sound is very high and "tin-ey" sounding. With headphones though, the sound is quite acceptable.

SUMMARY: I enjoy this unit and use it almost daily. It is the smallest unit I found and offers the greatest bang-for-the-buck, especially since the recent price drop.

104 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Buy., January 15, 2000

By A Customer

I bought this unit a little over two weeks ago, and have used it extensively. Here's what I've found. Everything good that's been said about this gadget is true, and out of everything bad, only one statement is true. The bottom does get hot. Not overly so, but it is just something to watch out for when watching very long movies. But think about it, are you really going to hold it in your hand for 3 hours? No. Overall, I recommend this to anyone who can afford it. One last thing though, to those of you who don't know, there are actually five different palm sized units on the market, the DVD L-10, DVD L-50 (both by Panasonic), the PDV-LC10 (by Pioneer), the PBD-V30 (by Sony), and the DV-L70U (by Sharp). I have had the opportunity to see ALL of these DVD players in action, and the L-50 blows them all away, it's cheaper, sleeker, smaller, and easier to use then the other players. This one is a great buy!

69 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Every Penny - No Regrets!, October 22, 1999

By A Customer

I see all the negative reviews here in which people say you should get a laptop with a DVD drive instead, but I completely disagree. The laptop is heavier, more expensive, sucks up battery life faster, and isn't as readily connected to various pieces of audio-visual equipment in your home. I bought this unit so I could have the best of both worlds: I keep it hooked up to my home theater system on a day to day basis, then unplug it and take it on the road with me for long car trips and flights. Its value cannot be exaggerated when you're looking for a means of keeping a four-year-old happy and quiet while buckled into a seat for two or more hours. Also, it's perfect for family cabin and timeshare trips since you can bring a whole library of movies and plug the unit into virtually any TV once you get there. And if there's no TV just use the flip-up screen. About that screen---I've found that my movie watching experience is different when using it, and in fact I feel MORE "pulled in" than when watching on my bigscreen TV. Finally, regarding the speakers on the unit: if you use headphones instead of the speakers, the dolby surround effect will amaze you. I don't know how they did it, but it's just like being in the theater.